More in Movies »

GREENE CRITICIZES FILM ADAPTATIONS OF HIS BOOKS

AP

Published: September 6, 1984

LONDON, Sept. 4—
The writer Graham Greene says many of his books have been turned into ''very bad films'' - even by great directors.

Mr. Greene made a rare public appearance Monday night at a standing- room-only assemblage of movie buffs at London's National Film Theater, which was inaugurating a film retrospective of adapted Greene stories.

Calling it ''an ambiguous festival,'' Mr. Greene wryly told the audience, ''You're celebrating with what I consider eight very bad films,'' among the 23 to be shown. He named only two he liked: ''The Third Man'' and ''The Fallen Idol,'' both directed by Sir Carol Reed.

Mr. Greene, who will be 80 years old on Oct. 2, came from his home in Antibes in the south of France to discuss the way his stories have been turned into films.

'They Can't Be That Cinematic'

''Very few good films have been made out of my books, so they can't be that cinematic,'' Mr. Greene said.

He said that he seldom sees movies anymore, but he stayed on after his talk to watch the premiere of the most recent adaptation of his work - Michael Lindsay-Hogg's television film of ''Dr. Fischer of Geneva,'' with Alan Bates and, in his last television appearance, James Mason.

''I want here to say that any pleasure I have in seeing the film is overcast by the death of James Mason,'' Mr. Greene said, expressing amazement at ''the patience, good humor, and thoughtfulness to others shown by him'' during shooting.

''To me, Dr. Fischer will forever have the face of James Mason,'' Mr. Greene said.

Cukor and Lang Films Cited

But most of the film versions of his books have disappointed him. He said that the 1947 adaptation of ''The Man Within,'' directed by Bernard Knowles, was ''shockingly bad,'' and he called George Cukor's 1972 adaptation of ''Travels With My Aunt'' very bad.

He acknowledged that he had never sat through a complete showing of ''Travels With My Aunt,'' but had been sufficiently dismayed by a smuggled copy of the script.

Mr. Greene cited Cukor as one of several great directors who had been responsible for some of his worst films.

Others included Fritz Lang, who once came up to the author in a Los Angeles bar to apologize for the 1944 screen version of ''Ministry of Fear.''

Mr. Greene took offense at the 1967 film ''The Comedians,'' starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor - calling Miss Taylor ''a disaster.'' He criticized the director Joseph Mankiewicz for turning the sharply critical ''The Quiet American'' into a propaganda piece for American policy in Vietnam.

Kind Words for Reed

Kinder words were reserved for the two films directed Sir Carol.

Praising Sir Carol as ''the only director I've really enjoyed working with,'' Mr. Greene said ''The Third Man'' and ''The Fallen Idol'' were based on long short stories rather than full-length novels.

''A short story makes a much better film than a novel,'' he said. ''A novel is too long, has too much material, and there have to be too many compromises.''

Among more recent adaptations, Mr. Greene condemned Otto Preminger's 1979 ''The Human Factor'' as one of the ''outstandingly bad'' films of his books, and said he had not seen ''Beyond the Limit,'' the 1983 screen version of ''The Honorary Consul'' that starred Michael Caine and Richard Gere.

When asked why his works were getting shorter and shorter, Mr. Greene replied, ''Because I get older and older.''